Unpleasant Surprise
by teamginger
Summary: When Natasha returns early from a mission, Steve's patience is tested while waiting for an explanation.
1. Chapter 1

Steve had been eagerly counting down the days until Natasha returned from her mission in Canada. Apparently it was one of those things that she had to do on her own- such were her exact words, which admittedly, concerned Steve. For the whole time that she had been away, he had been thinking over every single thing that happened between them recently that would make her say something like that, but couldn't think of anything. They had been together for months, with no sign of breaking up, until now. He hadn't as much as gotten a text from her, letting him know that she was alright.

When Natasha spills through the door two days early, Steve is nothing short of shocked. He immediately assesses her condition. She is bleeding through her catsuit, and has several abrasions on her head. She stumbles through the doorway, abandoning her duffel bag in the hallway of Steve's apartment building. Steve rushes to her as she tries again to get up, catching her as she falls forward into his arms.

"What happened to you? Why didn't you go to the hospital? Why are you here?" he demands, perhaps a little too quickly. He reminds himself to take a breath, and take things one step at a time.

"Easy, Cap. I'll explain later, but let's go to the hospital," she says. Steve picks her up off the ground, and kicks her duffel bag into the apartment. He closes the door, and starts for the stairs, because it would be awkward to be holding his bleeding girlfriend in an elevator if there was someone else there. Besides, he's Captain America, stairs would never slow him down. Her head grows heavy on his shoulder, and when he takes a moment to look at her, he notices that she had fallen asleep. He can't prevent the smile, because he knows that Natasha would never fall asleep in the presence of anyone else but him, and he begins to understand why she came to his door rather than the hospital.

He goes to a S.H.I.E.L.D. operated hospital, because he'd have a difficult time explaining her situation to a public hospital, and it would be too dangerous for her. The S.H.I.E.L.D. van that Natasha must have taken to his apartment was still outside the building. He slides into the backseat, and tells the driver to go to the hospital, and then they're on their way. He holds Natasha close to him, even if it means getting blood all over his casual clothes. She doesn't stir in her sleep at all, and doesn't even look all that peaceful, but Steve suspects that a lack of sleep also contributed to her decision to come to him. Her sense of self-preservation has always overruled their relationship.

When they arrive at the hospital, the nurse gently awakes Natasha, whose face adopts a more irritated expression, but reluctantly, she allows the nurse to take her away on a gurney, so long as Steve isn't far behind, which he never is anyways. Eventually, he's not allowed to be with her anymore, at which point, he sits on the cold tile floor outside the operating room and waits.

"You're a good friend of hers, aren't you?" asks a nurse who pauses to talk to him. Steve looks up at her, and shrugs, restraining his true feelings from tumbling out of his mouth- a habit he had learned from Natasha.

"You could say that," he says with a little smile. She continues on her way, and again, Steve is by himself in the hallway.

He almost falls asleep, but a nurse opens the door just as his eyelids begin to droop, sending Steve scrambling to his feet. The nurse smiles, stifling a giggle.

"Your friend is going to be just fine," she announces cheerfully. "She's in recovery now, you can go see her if you'd like. It's down the hall on your first left."

Steve walks briskly down the hallway, but slows down in the recovery ward, as if being quiet would have an effect on the drugged patients. All of them are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but there aren't many of them. Even if there were, it wouldn't matter to Steve, he was only here for Natasha.

He finds a chair and pulls it up beside her bed, holding her hand gently in his where it rests on her stomach. She looks much more peaceful in this drug-induced sleep, with no signs of trouble or conflict riddled on her face. He wonders what she dreams about in this state.

Out of nowhere, her hand tightens around his, and he looks at her face, noticing that her sleepy, grey eyes opened just enough so that she could see him. She smiles a little, and falls back asleep with a heaving breath.

"She's exhausted," explains a tall man in a white over coat, who Steve can immediately identify as a doctor. "Let her rest, Cap. She's been through a lot recently."


	2. Chapter 2

Luckily, he wakes up before she does. Not by much though. His head had been leaning on her ribcage, so when he sits up, she jolts awake. His back aches from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position, but after a few stretches, the pain isn't as significant.

"Morning," says Natasha in a groggy tone, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "What are you still doing here?"

"I believe you owe me an explanation," says Steve, unable to contain a smile because she looks so adorable when she's tired. She locks her eyes with his, challenging him, expecting him to back down, but when he stares right back at her with matched intensity, she rolls her eyes.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you," she says. "But not here. Just hang on until we can go somewhere else, and I'll tell you everything."

It sounds simple when she says it, but when the doctors return, they inform her that she should remain in the hospital for at least another day before going back out to face the world. Steve feels that he was going to explode if he didn't get an explanation soon. They move her to a private room, where nurses are eager to fuss over Natasha, which she barely tolerates.

The day drags by, especially after Steve is prompted to leave the hospital around lunch time. He decides to go out for a run, to help put his mind at ease. It doesn't come as a surprise when he runs into Sam Wilson, one of his closest friends since he was retrieved from that iceberg.

"Hey Cap!" says Sam cheerfully, taking a break from his run. Steve pauses as well. "You're late! I got at least four laps in before you got here!"

"Yeah," says Steve with a laugh. "Nat's in the hospital, so I was with her this morning."

"Dammit Steve," Sam says in a lower tone. "Why didn't you say anything? I could've gone over there."

"I don't mind being there," Steve says, thankful that Sam didn't ask about why she was there. "She would've done the same."

"I've gotta get going," says Sam, clapping Steve on the shoulder. "But tell her to get better soon, alright? I'll catch up with you two later."

Sam runs off in the general direction of his house, leaving Steve alone once again. He continues on his run, in no particular purpose or target. He runs through a quiet park, wishing that he could get lost somewhere to get his mind off Natasha. And that's when he has an idea.

Visiting Peggy had lowered itself on his list of priorities since awakening to the new world. At first, it was all he cared about. She was one of the few things that remained of his past, and he wanted to make up for all the years that they had lost. But eventually he realized that every time they spoke, it would be just like the first time. And it was a little painful for Steve to relive it, over and over, but he made sure to stop by at least every two weeks. This would be the second time this week that he had seen her.

"Steve!" she cried out happily upon seeing him. "It's been so long!"

"I know it has, and I'm sorry," he says, sitting down in the chair next to her bed, suppressing a twinge of jealousy upon sight of the framed photographs of her family. She gushes out the usual speech about how she missed him, and how hard she tried to get a search and rescue team out to the crash site, and Steve listens attentively, as if it were the first time seeing her after the accident.

"I'm glad you're here," says Peggy, reaching out for his hand, and he gives it to her. "Why _are _you here, Steve? Don't you have some catching up to do?"

He explains the situation to her, and she listens attentively, clinging onto every word so that she won't forget. When he finishes explaining, she formulates a response quickly.

"You should be with her then," she says, in a slightly sadder tone. Steve smiles wistfully and plants a light kiss on the back of her hand. He leaves shortly after feeling a little more light-hearted, until he starts thinking again.


End file.
